"Concrete Island" critiques supermodernity by contrasting the motorway, a non-place whose purposes are speed, efficiency, and ongoing circulation, with the island, a stagnant, overgrown assemblage of ruins from several time periods that is home to social outcasts. Both the island and its inhabitants are rejected by this postmodern society; the novel can be read as a warning about supermodernity, revealing its negative effect on society. This paper will first discuss places and non-places, starting with defining non-places, then analysing the motorway as a non-place as opposed to the island, which constitutes a place. Then it will proceed to examine the effects of supermodernity on humans, both those who live within this system and those outside of it. In his depiction of humans in "Concrete Island", Ballard suggests that supermodernity is not only postmodern but also posthuman, valuing people not for their humanity but for their ability to advance a postmodern society as anonymous workers within it. Lastly, this paper will address supermodernity’s apparent dependency on the imperceptibility of places such as the concrete island, which demonstrate that supermodernity is subject to entropy and decay, endangering the illusion it has created around itself.
- Quote paper
- Anonymous (Author), 2026, The Hidden Waste of Progress. Supermodernity and Its Consequences in J.G. Ballard's "Concrete Island", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1765903
